In recent years, a physiologically active substance that is derived from a marine organism or the like and found in a trace amount has been expected to be a resource for agricultural chemicals, medicines, and the like (Patent Documents 1 and 2). Therefore, it has become very important to accurately and efficiently determine the molecular structure of such a trace amount of organic compound in order to develop a novel agricultural chemical or medicine, for example.
When producing an agricultural chemical or a medicine, it is necessary to accurately identify a trace amount of impurities included in the agricultural chemical, medicine, or raw material in order to improve safety.
It has also been desired to identify a trace amount of impurities included in a raw material used to produce electronic parts, and reduce the amount of impurities along with a recent improvement in performance of electronic parts.
Specifically, it has been desired to accurately and efficiently determine the molecular structure of a trace amount of organic compound in various fields.
X-ray single crystal structure analysis has been known as a method for determining the molecular structure of an organic compound. The molecular structure of an organic compound can be accurately determined using X-ray single crystal structure analysis when it is possible to prepare a high-quality single crystal.
However, when the amount of organic compound is very small, and it is impossible to obtain a sufficient amount of single crystal, it is difficult to employ X-ray single crystal structure analysis for determining the molecular structure of the organic compound. It is difficult to prepare a single crystal when the organic compound for which the molecular structure is to be determined is liquid at about room temperature (i.e., when the melting point of the organic compound is equal to or lower than room temperature).